


I Wish It Would Rain Down

by MJTrafficShaman



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Transformation, Evolution, F/F, F/M, Genderswap, Harems, Intersectionality, Intersex, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Sex, M/M, Multi, Other, Pokephilia, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-05-19 07:36:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19352443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MJTrafficShaman/pseuds/MJTrafficShaman
Summary: Halle has a pretty good life, she was a moderately successful actress, had good friends and lived in the most beautiful city in Kalos.  The only shadow in her life is a co-worker she has zero romantic interest in trying to get her to go out with him.  How far is he willing to go to get what he wants?(hot tip: it's really fucking far.  Waaaay over the line)





	1. Halle's Answer

“And that’s a wrap! Well done everyone!” the producer announced, tucking his clipboard under his arm to applaud the crew and cast of Peekuu’s Party. The titular Peekuu, a dark, almost orangy pikachu sat back on her haunches and accepted a treat from her usually off-camera trainer, Mike.  
Her co-star and fictional trainer Halle joined in the clapping.  
“Just a reminder everyone, that the wrap party starts at 8pm at Pidgey Wings!” she called out. The crew bubbled about, congratulating each other on the final official shoot of the children’s show. Halle got out of their way to her dressing room, so the grips and runners could start unplugging the cameras and coiling up the cables. She pulled her hair out of the ponytail as she went. It held its shape until she rifled her hands through it, thanks to the half can of hairspray during make-up.  
Flowers were waiting on her dressing table, with a hamper and thank you card. There was another package from her co-star’s trainer. She grimaced a little. Last week Mike had asked her out and she’d fobbed him off saying she wanted to concentrate on ending the series. Now they had just wrapped up and she still didn’t know how she was supposed to turn him down. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad, since there was no guarantee she would be called back for the next season and thus wouldn’t need to have a good relationship with Peekuu.  
Her own pokemon partner was still sleeping on the sofa. He was a pricklier-than-usual nidoran.  
“Taaank, wake up … “ she coaxed, scritching his cheek. Tank snorted, twitched his whiskers and eyed her grumpily. She offered him one of the cosmos from the bouquet and he chomped the whole head off, eating noisily and dropping petals about as he stretched out his back legs.  
“Come on, lazy bones, we have to get home so we can get ready for the wrap party,” she said. With her bouquet in one arm and her bag on her shoulder, she and Tank left the studio. It was a long exit, she had to shake hands and air-kiss about everyone on the way out.  
It was a warm evening in Lumiose City as she and Tank caught a taxi to their flat. There were several letters waiting for her at her mailbox and another had been pushed under the door to her flat. That was odd. Her block of flats had a coded door to the building. She picked up the envelope back and front as she laid her flowers down on the kitchen island. It had some funny writing all over the back but she couldn’t read the language. She opened the flap and when nothing jumped out at her, she took out the card. It was a ‘congratulations’ card and when she opened it, an obnoxious amount of glitter fell out.  
“Looking forward to your answer tonight,” was all it said. Halle grimaced. She wondered if she should speak to the building super about not letting Mike in again. He probably thought it was terribly romantic to come to her house and put cards under the door. It wasn’t. It was just terrible.  
She got ready for the wrap party after a long shower and offered Tank a good portion of her paella. She wanted to fill up at the buffet table. She called her friend on speaker phone while she did her hair up in the mirror.  
“Bellaaaaaa! What’s up, bitch!” she shouted, though the phone was less than a foot away from her mouth.  
“Biiiiiiitch! Aaaaah! Are you getting ready?!” screamed Bella back. In the background was a cacophony of noise. Bella was a league challenger and had three big bruiser pokemon around her like a gang at all times.  
“Did you make it to Lumiose? My offer still stands!” said Halle in a more normal tone as she brushed mascara up her lashes.  
“I did not! We got into some team battling action in Shalour and it got crazy. Sorry babes!”  
Halle tried not to let her disappointment show, even though Bella couldn’t see her over the phone.  
“Oh well. Guess I’m going doe to the party then. You could have been in a real showbiz function, your loss,” she teased.  
“Oh nooo, how will I cope without the luminaries who worked on the Wigglytuffs and Count with Clefairy! I should be in Lumiose by the weekend.”  
Halle wondered where she would take Bella out in the city when she arrived and they discussed it at length until her make-up was done and she pulled on her favourite blue dress.  
“Right babes, I’m off out. I’ll call you tonight in a drunk haze to cry about how pretty the stars are or something,” she said, knowing herself well enough. Bella laughed and wished her a good night and hung up.  
“C’mon Tank!” Halle called as she held the door open. Tank bustled after her and they walked together through the busy shopping district. It was such a nice, warm night that it felt like everyone was out, the tower at the centre of the city was lit up beautifully and everything seemed kind of perfect. It was only marred by the thought that Halle had to turn down Mike and he might make a scene.  
She would just have to get it over with and deal with the fall out. At least she wouldn’t have to work with him after this.  
The wrap party was being held at Pidgey Wings, a bar that sprawled over three addresses. She headed up the stairs and was late enough that the party was already getting steam. The DJ had two Loudreds that were stomping their feet on the stage as they sang along to the bass beat. She said hello to her favourite members of the crew with obvious delight and got herself a drink before she could no longer avoid Mike.  
Mike was handsome. That wasn’t her problem with him. He had a gym bunny body and high, chiselled cheekbones. His hair was always kind of fashionable and he wore one of those simple v-neck tee-shirts that showed off his body. He was also just … kind of creepy. He was always standing a little too close or staring a little too long. He always made dirty jokes, leaving no guesses as to where his mind was most of the time. None of it was what Halle was interested in.  
“Congrats, Hal!” he said, putting an arm around her waist that she didn’t really want there. She tried to ease away from him but the hand gripped her hard enough to prevent a subtle slide.  
“To you too, Mike. Peekuu really does a good job. Where is she?” she asked. Why Mike couldn’t feel her resistance and let her go, she didn’t know. It was really starting to piss her off.  
“So, did you make a decision about us?” he asked.  
Tank made a disgruntled sound at her ankles and she agreed with his sentiment. She put her hand on Mike’s chest and used it to push herself back out of his grip.  
“I’m not looking for a relationship, Mike,” she said firmly.  
A tight, angry expression crossed his face for a moment, so forbidding that for a split second, she honestly thought he might hit her. It passed and he worked his jaw a few times.  
“You said you wanted to focus on the show. I waited for you … “ he said, as though the basic human decency of waiting on an answer guaranteed him what he wanted later.  
“I’m not interested,” Halle reiterated, scanning the crowd, hoping someone would come and interrupt this tension. Her luck was in, the director was coming over, his mustache twirled into fine points and he burst into their little bubble jovially.  
“Halle! You’re late! I must ask you not to come in tomorrow because of it!” he boomed. Halle laughed, more out of relief than because the old wheeze was funny.  
Mike stalked off when their director was mid-flow and she wasn’t sorry to see him go one bit. She decided to spend the rest of the evening with a safer crowd, mostly the camera guys and the sound techs. She had a long, increasingly drunk conversation about the joys of foley work when someone bumped into her from behind, splashing cold liquid down her neck and back.  
“What the fuck?!” Halle had to be steadied by Lisa, the foley assistant, when she was knocked a little off balance. Lisa’s Chesnaught made a really angry noise at the culprit of the spill. Halle saw Mike mumble something and back off, moving back towards the bar.  
“What’s wrong with him? He did that on purpose … “ muttered Lisa. Halle sighed and shook her hands, the drink had gotten all over her.  
“He asked me out and I said no,” she said. Lisa rolled her eyes.  
“What a little bitch. Come on, let’s go get some napkins in the bathroom,” she walked with Halle to the ladies. Their pokemon waited outside politely, even though it wouldn’t have mattered if they came in. Lisa patted down Halle’s back as much as she could, but the dress would definitely need to go to a dry cleaners to get rid of the stain.  
After that one incident, Halle didn’t see Mike again for the rest of the night, which frankly was for the best. She was feeling a bit fired up from the drink and wanted to tell him what a little baby he was being but instead she ended up staggering out to an all-night crepe place with Lisa and a few others before they all disbanded in the small hours of the morning to head home.  
Halle and Tank wobbled their way down the back street to their apartment and Halle had to stop and put her hand to the wall. Tank was making worried noises, running around her ankles in agitation. She tried to shush him but instead she just threw up her late night snack. It was embarrassing, she wasn’t a student any more to be behaving like this.  
“I just need to sit down … “ she gasped and the ground sort of skewed sideways in her vision. She toppled over. She could see Tank’s terrified squeaking face and tried to reach out to pat him, but her limbs felt so heavy she couldn’t move.  
She blacked out.


	2. Mike's Answer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (explicit, violent lemon)
> 
> Halle wakes up transformed, confused and not in friendly company. Mike's reaction to her rejection has taken a weird turn.

Waking up came slowly. First was oblivion and a headache. Then the incessant press of an overfull bladder that Halle tried to ignore for what felt like an hour. She was able to open her eyes only a bit and couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. Her brain finally engaged enough to translate the jumble of light and shapes into an unfamiliar room seen through bars. She blinked several times, then sat up slowly. She had never felt so wickedly bad in her life. Everything hurt like she’d been run over or something. She looked around again.  
The bars were all around her and she was lying on a blanket. That was … worrying.  
More worrying was the glance she got at her body. Instead of her blue dress - which was what she expected - there was sandy coloured fur and paw-like feet. She yelled some variation of ‘what the fuck’, or tried to.  
It came out as a series of shrieks and squeaks. She gathered herself up and rattled the bars. It was what she considered a ‘time out’ crate, for when a young pokemon was being particularly ill behaved in the house. Her screaming distress made the door to the room open and she saw an orange furred face that was familiar.  
“Oh it’s you. You don’t need to scream like that, nobody who cares can hear you,” Peekuu said. Halle was taken aback. One, because she could understand Peekuu just fine, and two, because of all the voices she imagined Peekuu had, snotty wasn’t one of them.  
“Peekuu! It’s me, Halle!” she burst out, hoping her co-star would help her out. Peekuu waddled over to the cage and regarded her haughtily.  
“I know who you are, dummy,” she rolled her eyes and reached up to the simple bolts. She pulled them across and opened the door, “you were the vapid screenhog on my show.”  
Halle wobbled her way out of the crate. Today was too bizarre, it had to be some weird, hyper realistic dream.  
“I thought you liked me … you were so sweet all the time …”  
“I’m a brilliant actress, clearly,” said Peekuu dryly. She dropped to all fours and scampered out of the room.  
“Peekuu, Peekuu! Wait!” she tripped and fell on her snout. She grimaced and stood back up. The room outside the crate looked like a guest room. It was a bedroom, with a single bed, a dresser and a wardrobe, but lacking the personal touches that indicated someone usually slept here. After several shuffles and scrapes and a lot of flailing, Halle managed to climb onto the dresser to see herself in the mirror. A shocked looking sandshrew looked back. She had to pat her own cheeks to confirm the reflection was her.  
How had this happened?  
_Why_ had this happened?  
Since her reflection had none of those answers and maybe Peekuu did, Halle plopped down onto the carpet with a solid thump. She shook her head dizzily and, despite how embarrassed it made her, she pattered out of the room on all fours.  
The rest of the flat was a small two bedroom, not refurnished for a good twenty years to look at the wallpaper. Peekuu was making herself comfortable on the sofa.  
“Please, Peekuu, just tell me why I’m a sandshrew!” wailed Halle, not caring that it made her sound like a squeaky-toy.  
“Ugh. I don’t know, alright. I don’t understand my partner very well,” the pikachu snapped finally, her ears laid back, “he’s been obsessed with you since casting. Then you were a bitch to him I assume and he made a deal with a very shady guy who felt evil. It cost a lot of money, that’s all I know about _that_. He got some serum or something, poured it over you at the wrap party and a bit later when you went home we followed you and saw you change into that.”  
“Where’s Tank?” Halle asked, after a few stuttering false-starts. It was almost too much, what a weird story. But she was definitely a sandshrew now and not a human.  
“Your nido? Master kicked him to the curb. Didn’t want him, only wanted you,” Peekuu shrugged as if she was indifferent, but she turned then and balled up so she didn’t have to look at Halle and the sandshrew wondered if she was really okay with it after all.  
The front door opened then, surprising pikachu and sandshrew when Mike came in. He had groceries in one arm and a sullen expression on his face as he kicked the door shut behind him. When he saw Halle in the living room, his expression darkened again.  
Halle backed up, bumping into the coffee table. Mike _felt_ ominous and dark and terrifying. His words were difficult to make out but she understood the intent behind them very well. He dumped the shopping on the side and marched over to her. She scrambled to get to the first cover she could see - under the sofa - but he grabbed her tail and pulled her back out. She wriggled and kicked frantically but he held her up off the floor.  
“You bitch …” she made out some of his words. He was so angry with her. Angry that she was all wrong. She felt him grab the scaley scruff of her neck and hold her tightly as he walked back into the guest bedroom. He tossed her back into the crate and shut the front back up. He then shut the bedroom door.  
Halle could just see Peekuu’s face peering around the corner as it shut. The pikachu looked worried.  
And that worried Halle even more.  
Mike sat down on the chair and looked at Halle. He seemed to rein in some of that aura that distressed her so much and his words were easier to make out.  
“-why you turned into a gross, fat little dirt mouse. You should have been a gardevoir, or at least a lopunny,” he muttered. He took something out of his pocket and unscrewed the cap. From the hollow slosh, he’d been at the hip-flask quite a bit already and she could smell more alcohol on him. He seemed to be steeling up for something.  
“Fuck it. You’re mine now and you can never escape. I got a pokeball special for you. It’ll make you ‘friendlier’ to me faster. But first I’m going to punish you for being such a bitch, stringing me along like that …” he got up and set the hipflask down on the dresser with a hollow thock.  
Halle watched with growing dread as he got up and pulled the sheets back from the bed, then took off his tee-shirt, jeans, socks and then finally his boxers. He rummaged around in the bedside drawer and took out a bottle, a condom wrapper and a roll of duct tape. When he came over to the crate, Halle’s panic made her freeze. She’d never so much as been in a scuffle before, her brain felt like it had just stopped. She screamed internally but her mouth made no noise as he reached in and seized her, pulling her out.  
“Not so confident now, are you?” He mocked her as he taped her front paws together and then her muzzle shut. He laid her on the bed and went to the closet. She was trying to negotiate her body to roll to her feet and escape when he returned with a coat-hanger. He pushed her back onto her back and taped one paw to each end of the coat-hanger. With her splayed out and helpless, he stood up to admire his handiwork.  
Halle stared at him, she couldn’t look away even though she wanted to. He was a giant compared to her and his dick twitched hungrily as he surveyed his victim. He reached down and fondled his shaft, working his fingers up and over his head and smearing the precum around it a little.  
He turned from her only long enough to take the condom from the wrapper and then roll it over his erection. He hummed gloatingly, still looking at her and enjoying her paralysed fear as he pumped an excessive handful of lube over his sheathed cock.  
Finally he was ready and she quailed as he climbed onto the bed over her. He groped his lubricated fingers over her exposed pussy, parting it and shoving a finger into her without ceremony. It hurt, the pain shot up her back and she whimpered, wanting to scream but unable to open her mouth.  
“Already wet, bitch? You like it rough don’t you?” he said breathlessly. She wasn’t and she didn’t. Of course she felt wet to his oily fingers. She struggled and squirmed but he grabbed her throat to hold her still. He bunched his body up so he could manually guide his penis to her womanhood. He was breathing hard and already sweating, enjoying this far more than he thought possible. She was so weak compared to him. Nobody else would ever want this gross, half scaley little monster mouse, she would be his forever.  
His head prodded and pressed against her cunny and she cried out with out big it was, begging him to stop and have mercy but he couldn’t understand her. It was just squeaks that he chose to believe where sexual satisfaction. He called her a dirty bitch and stopped his prodding with a hard thrust, impaling her as far as he could. She really did scream, in agony and in despair. He pounded her hard, not caring that blood was staining the sheets.  
“No wonder you were so frigid, but I got your virginity now!” he grunted as he hammered her tiny body. She could _sense_ his growing, intense satisfaction. He half crushed her by pressing all his weight down and holding onto the sheets so he could plough her vagina carelessly.  
His climax was noisy and came with him throttling her so tight she lost partial consciousness. She was still gasping for air when he yanked himself out of her and flopped on the bed on his back. He stretched luxuriously, his dick flopped over his thigh and the condom covered with various fluids.  
“When you’ve earned it, you can have my seed, but you’re going to have to be sweet to me,” he said, still in whatever delusion he’d constructed. He leaned on his side and pet her belly fur.  
“Nobody’s ever going to want spoiled goods, and you’re just a pokemon now. Nobody cares what a trainer does to their ‘mon. I’m going to fuck you so good for the rest of your life.”  
With that chilling promise, he stretched again, got up and pulled off his condom. He knotted it in a businesslike way and threw it in the garbage can before walking out the room. He disappeared into the bathroom and Halle cried and whimpered in her pain and humiliation. He’d left her splayed in that undignified way after savaging her body, she wanted to die.


	3. Peekuu's Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peekuu cannot ignore her own conscience and sets out a daring rescue in the dead of night.

There was no way Halle was going to sleep, still bound and filled with a deep burning pain. The lights of taxis going past in the small hours splayed light over the ceiling in arcs. A distant clock chimed midnight. Somewhere a furfrou howled and barked. It was all just punctuation to the incessant thud of her blood in her veins and throb in her abdomen.  
The bedroom door creaked softly and Halle whimpered, fearing Mike’s return.  
It was not Mike who hopped up onto the bed, but Peekuu. She was holding a kitchen knife awkwardly in her teeth until she could stand up. She sawed through the duct tape holding Halle’s paws together. It was a clumsy attempt, she nicked the sandshew’s paws twice. Halle didn’t complain. Bound together for so long, when she could finally move them, a flood of pins and needles like radio static burned up her arms.  
Peekuu didn’t try the knife on the tape around her muzzle, she chewed and pulled it off, her electric cheeks grounding themselves on Halle with sparks that lit up the room briefly but caused the sandshrew no pain except when the tape pulled some fur off her nose.  
Together they tackled her legs, Halle whimpering as she bent in the middle, trying to keep quiet but the pain was a vicious stab, constantly striking at her.  
Once her feet were free and she’d rubbed some life back into them, Peekuu motioned her to follow. Halle did, hopping off the bed and limping after her into the main body of the flat. They could hear Mike’s snoring dimly behind his bedroom door and the hum of the fridge. Peekuu picked up a kerchief wrapped around a bundle and tied the ends around her neck in a make-shift backpack.  
Instead of going to the front door with its many tall locks, Peekuu showed Halle to the bathroom. Here a window was constantly propped open for ventilation. The two pokemon struggled up onto the back of the toilet to reach it. Peekuu cursed Halle’s clumsiness and heaviness under her breath as she tried to hoist the sandshrew up to the window. After much scrabbling and awkwardness, they dropped onto the fire-escape.  
Peekuu shushed Halle for the ungainly thuds she made as she struggled with going head first down the stairs.  
Once they were on the cobbled back streets of Lumiose, Halle had to lie down on the cool stones. She felt like she was bleeding again, everything felt hot and painful.  
“You can’t lie down here,” hissed Peekuu, pulling at her arm, “if we’re not gone out of the city by morning, he’ll be able to ask people to find us and bring us back. And people will do it because they don’t understand a thing we say!”  
Halle pushed herself up wearily.  
“I can barely walk, Peekuu … I’m hurt inside …” she knew she was whining but she couldn’t help it.  
The pikachu bullied her into walking until she noticed the faint spots of blood the sandshrew was leaving and then she made a grim, long-suffering face. She shoved her shoulders under Halle’s stomach and hoisted her up onto her shoulders. She hadn’t really considered how dense ground-type pokemon were and she staggered a few more streets with her burden before she sagged down onto the ground, half squashed by the useless lump on top of her.  
“We’re never going to make it …” Halle whispered, “Peekuu, just go.”  
“Oh how noble, and really stupid. Don’t be such a melodramatic bitch,” grunted the pikachu testily. She squirmed out from under the sandshrew and brushed herself off. She took off her pack and laid it down, she sorted through the few items. There was a pokeball, some brushes, a little prize ribbon and a poke-doll. None of it looked very useful.  
Sound down the alleyway made Peekuu freeze, then stand and turn, brandishing her hairbrush like a sword.  
“I’m armed and dangerous!” she yelled.  
A nidoran emerged from the shadows, his quills braced for a fight. He eyed the pikachu’s choice of weapon skeptically, then looked at the badly injured sandshrew.  
“Not looking for a fight, sparkmouse. I’m just passing through looking for my partner … “ he said sullenly.  
Peekuu squinted, then worked her cheeks so blue sparks of electricity popped into the night, illuminating the alleyway in brief snaps.  
“You’re Halle’s nido, Tank! It’s me, you cretin, Peekuu,” she snapped.  
The nidoran’s quills stood up harder.  
“I changed my mind, I am looking for a fight now. Where’s Halle?! What did your nasty human do to her?!”  
Peekuu held up her brush more firmly.  
“She’s right here, you dumbass!” she gestured to the sandshrew. Halle opened her eyes a bit and slid her head to look at the nidoran. He looked bigger from this angle, his spikes standing up like that.  
“You saw her change, I heard you yell about it. It’s her!”  
Tank kept an eye on Peekuu as he walked sideways until he was close enough to sniff at Halle. His ears drooped down a bit and his spines relaxed minutely.  
“Halle? Mistress?” he sounded so confused and bereft. Halle nodded.  
“It’s me. Oh Tank, are you hurt?” she reaches a paw to his face and pet his cheek the way she knew he liked. He leaned into it.  
“I’m much better now I’ve found you. Stop worrying about me, you’re hurt, I can feel it. We have to take you to a poke-centre.”  
“We can’t! She doesn’t have a ball, she’s just a feral sandshrew to these people! And how are we going to explain the two of us bringing her in?!”  
“There is no ‘us’! You were part of this! You helped your sick master do this to her! I should smash your head open, you snotty little bitch!” Tank went from gentle concern to furious in a split second, rounding on the pikachu.  
“Tank, stop it. She helped me escape.”  
“Why?!” Tank demanded, still glowering at Peekuu. The orange pikachu looked at the trinkets she’d brought with her, scuffing the ground a bit with her paw.  
“What he did … it was wrong,” she mumbled. She laid her ears down and shook her head. “Look, I don’t care if she goes with you now, I’m leaving. You two can hole up in this alley and live out of garbage bins with the garbadour if you like. I’m out,” she started to tie her bundle back up roughly.  
Halle managed to push herself standing.  
“No, Peekuu, we’ll go together. I trust you,” she said. Tank looked like he wanted to object, but he just leaned against the sandshrew, helping prop her up on his side, his spines resting against her slightly scaled back. Peekuu tied her bundle back around her neck. She looked at Halle a bit more, then grumbled something and propped up her other side.  
“I will ditch you both the first moment it’s convenient,” she swore.  
Halle let her say whatever she needed to to salve her pride or protect herself. But when the chips were down, she had saved Halle, and whatever she might say afterwards, that action spoke volumes.  
With Tank’s help, while it was dawn by the time they left the city, they did manage to leave it. They headed west, toward Coumarine City, sleeping under bushes in the long grass by day and travelling mostly by night. Tank was quite good at knowing medicinal berries. He borrowed Peekuu’s kerchief - after a blistering row about it - and brought it back with restorative berries to help bring down Halle’s fever and numb her pain.  
“Why are we headed towards the sea. I thought sandshrews hated water?” asked Peekuu grumpily one morning as they stopped to make a makeshift shelter for themselves under a camper’s caravan.  
“I thought of someone who might be able to help. My friend Bella is a pokemon trainer. I think we’ll be safe with her. She seems to understand her pokemon very well. She’ll know we don’t want to go back where we came from. She was coming to visit me in Lumiose, but got sidetracked in Shalour, so I think we’ll meet her in Coumarine … I mean … I hope we will.”  
Tank cuddled up against her side as Peekuu tried to manipulate the brush over her own back.  
“Sounds like a very loose plan.”  
“Do you have a better one?” demanded Tank, his eyes already closed.  
Peekuu did not and turned her back rather huffily to the nidoran while she tried to brush herself.  
Halle watched her for a bit, then sighed and sat up. Tank flopped a bit into the space she left. She leaned back on him as she sat and pulled Halle back towards her. She took the brush and started to groom the pikachu’s rich, orange fur.  
“... Did Mike ever do to you … what he did to me?” she asked, hesitantly. Peekuu’s ears flicked up and down as she sat, letting herself be brushed.  
“No. Well … not like he did with you. He rubbed himself against me a few times. Once I tried to put his thing in my mouth but I gave him an electric shock by accident and he never tried again,” she said it offhand.  
Halle had never had such feelings or inclinations towards Tank. He was her sweet boy and friend for life. She thought Mike’s kinds of activities were the stuff of sensationalist stories, but just that, stories.  
“Did you … love him?” Halle really didn’t want to know about her rapist’s love life, but she did want to know more about Peekuu.  
“No. I liked him when he first caught me. He liked me because I had unusual colouring. But after a while he sort of cooled and stopped brushing me and giving me treats. It was when I got my first casting job and someone else was cast to be my onscreen trainer. He was a man called Brian I think. Mike started to be cold to me after that. I don’t know why.”  
Halle knew why. He was jealous. It was that simple and petty. His _pokemon_ had star quality and he didn’t, so he resented her. And everything he resented, he mistreated.  
Halle pulled Peekuu against her stomach and hugged her arms around her from behind.  
Yes, she was a little bitch sometimes, but she was _her_ little bitch. She was a dynamite bombshell bitch who deserved someone who care about her and raise her up, not put her down.  
“You’re such a sap, this is why we aren’t friends!” grumbled Peekuu, but Halle noticed she made no attempt to pull free.  
“Maybe I can get some sleep real soon?” grumbled Tank from the dirt.


	4. Tank's Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tank decides to sacrifice autonomy for the good of his partner.  
> Halle discovers the value of flattery and the gang makes a strong alliance!

It became apparent to the trio that there was no avoiding the badlands if they wanted to reach the pass to Coumarine City. They did manage to avoid the difficult roads after they left the last of the caravans behind by climbing cliffs too steep for human comfort but much easier to navigate with four paws apiece. Wild digletts eyed them speculatively, their beady eyes peering over the lips of their burrows. Tank bristled at a few of them and his sheer attitude made them shloop back down into the depths of the ground.  
“What’s their problem?” asked Halle nervously, following Tank carefully.  
“It’s their territory. If each of us were alone, they might have attacked, but we’ve got safety in numbers!”  
Peekuu climbed on top of a sleeping graveller and surveyed the dusty scenery. She squinted, shielding her eyes from the low sun.  
“I think I see the ocean … “ she motioned the other two to join her and they balanced precariously, holding onto each other while they tiptoed and peered.  
It was the ocean, laid out like spilled glitter.  
It still took them hours and miles to reach Coumarine City, but just the sight of their end goal had heartened them. Midnight had struck as they entered the city. The smell of fish, brine and the sigh and shush of waves on the beach soothed frayed nerves and dry skin.  
“How are we going to find Bella?” murmured Halle, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. Tank twitched his nose several times and then flexed his whiskers.  
“It would be easier to ask other pokemon if they’ve seen a trainer with a chesnaught, gardevoir and feraligator.”  
The two females looked at each other and nodded. It might take a while, but it was a better plan than doing literally nothing. The three of them asked some rattata what they’d seen and got frankly obstructionist advice. A hoothoot was no help at all and it wasn’t until they found the liepard reclining on top of a fence that they got anything.  
“You all look very soft and vulnerable out on the street after dark. What say we battle for the information?” she asked, her tail tip twitching and foreleg dangling off the fence in a way that made it seem like no never mind to her.  
Peekuu spluttered.  
“Does it look like our trainer is here?!”  
“Trainers give you an unfair advantage. Of course, if you’re too scared …”  
Halle put her hand out to stop Tank from bristling into a rage. She regarded the liepard critically.  
“You are too intimidating, madam. We wouldn’t stand a chance,” she said. The liepard gloated a little as she licked her paw.  
“You might at least learn from the experience …” she crooned.  
Halle shook her head.  
“I would only learn that beautiful females will hurt me in alleyways and that’s not a lesson I want to take with me.”  
The liepard laughed, flattered and amused by the chubby little sandshrew.  
“I am letting you go only because you’re funny. I’ve seen your trainer. She is with several others on the beach. Her tent was the orange one,” she said lazily, rising and stretching long, then high, then flicking out her tail. She leapt effortlessly up to the roof of the building and disappeared into the night.  
“I could have taken her,” grumbled Tank as they resumed their trek, on the safer, more well lit roads.  
The beach had the remains of a bonfire and some bottles around it and several tents in a loose, inebriated sprawl. There was thankfully only one orange one and Halle’s heart raced as she approached it. She didn’t know if Bella could help anything, but she would just feel a lot better if she had her friend with her.  
A big, clawed hand struck the sand in front of her feet from under the flap. Halle jumped back several paces as the skull-capped head of a chesnaught followed it and the other ‘mon stood up on his feet after crawling out of the tent. He hit his paw with the other.  
“You don’t have business here. Leave or I kick your ass,” he said. Halle was surprised. She had known Goliath for a while but she didn’t expect his voice to sound like honey. Scratchy or raspy would have been her prediction.  
Tank rattled his spines and stepped ahead of Halle and Peekuu. He gave Goliath a flat look.  
“It’s me. Tank. Can we talk before you go around kicking ass?” he sounded more respectful than usual. Goliath tilted his head one way and then the other. He looked past Tank to the two unfamiliar ‘mons.  
“What’s their story? Where’s Halle?”  
Tank looked over his shoulder at them too, gazing at Halle. She nodded and he flicked his ears before looking back at Goliath.  
“This is going to sound a little mad, but Halle is a sandshrew now.”  
Goliath just stared at him, then at Halle, then at Tank. After a few moments, he dropped to all fours and walked over to Halle, low so he could see into her face. He looked deep into her eyes in a way that made her feel naked.  
Halle blushed and looked down.  
“I feel like you’re undressing me,” she muttered.  
Goliath made an amused sound.  
“Wouldn’t take long, you’re not wearing anything,” he looked around to Tank, “well, she _does_ feel familiar. I’ll wake up Bella,” he ducked back under the flap and there was the sound of conversation, then eventually the sound of three pokemon waking up their trainer.  
Bella’s short cropped hair was stuck up in a lopsided mohawk by the pillow and she was only wearing hot pants to bed. She sat down with crossed legs as she squinted in the pre-dawn light at the three pokemon. Her gardevoir, Brigand, sat elegantly to one side while Fidget, her feraligator, hunkered down on her other side.  
“Tank? Baby boy, why are you out here? Is Halle in trouble?” she picked Tank up, careful of the ends of his spines and snuggled his face. He tried telling her the whole story but it was clear they didn’t have the strong bond of understanding that he needed to get it all across. He looked to Peekuu.  
“You have your pokeball don’t you?” he asked, making a decision.  
Peekuu clutched her bindle to herself.  
“Why?”  
“If we go much further by ourselves, you are going to be recognised. You’re a famous TV star. We need a trainer to cover for us,” he said.  
Peekuu glared at Bella, then at Halle.  
“Why should I give control of my life to her? What’s she got going for her?!”  
Fidget gave Peekuu an angry look - how dare she talk so disrespectfully about his beloved trainer? - but Goliath held up his hand.  
“It’s a fair question. If Bella can’t win her over, it wouldn’t be right. Mistress ... “ he turned to Bella and tried to convey what Tank said. He walked over to Halle and patted her head.  
Bella squinted, she was trying to understand the nuance, but all she was really getting was Goliath’s profound sense that they needed to help. Since Goliath was not normally the outgoing type, she did think it was odd.  
Brigand stood up and sashayed over to Halle, putting his hand on her head too.  
“Mistress, we must help.”  
Tank sat on his haunches and looked hopefully at Bella. Bella was looking at Halle with so much curiosity, then she looked at Tank and saw him looking at her. She looked at Peekuu and cocked her head.  
“Aren’t you from that kid’s show?” she asked. She offered her hands out, beckoning the pikachu to her.  
Peekuu pulled a face and slid over to her, ready to dart back if she made a sudden move. Her sheer scepticism made Bella’s expression tighten up a bit. Halle could not only read her expression, but she could _feel_ the kind of righteous indignation that she so frequently expressed about pokemon abuse. It surprised her how clear that feeling resonated to her, like a bell’s chime.  
Peekuu clearly didn’t feel any of that, she let Bella stroke her head and check her eyes and ears. She pulled away from an ear scritch that felt overly-familiar and Bella didn’t press the issue.  
Tank rolled Peekuu’s ball to the pikachu. Once she had it in her paws, he looked at Bella solidly.  
“Help us, I’ll accept your orders as a trainer if you look after us,” he offered.  
Fidget cocked his head and leaned down to look Tank in the eye.  
“You’d fight for a trainer who isn’t yours?” he asked, honestly surprised.  
“If she promises to help Halle, yes.”  
That seemed to sell the feraligator on the whole situation. He patted Tank’s head, in an only slightly patronising way.  
“Mistress, it would probably not put us out to help them.”  
“How magnamous of you, Fidget ... “ whispered Halle. She padded over to Bella and set her paws on her knee, looking up at her.  
“I hope you understand me as clearly as I understand you. I’m Halle, and I need you, Bella. We’re in danger and I need to find a way back to being human. Please …”  
Bella looked at Halle, she stroked her cheeks and there was a genuine softness in her eyes.  
“You are the most sincere little thing. I feel like we already have a strong connection. I have to find out what’s happened to my friend but of course I’ll take care of you all.” she scooped the dense sandshrew up and squeezed her in a hug.  
Once she had set Halle down, she picked up Peekuu’s ball and thanked her.  
“I hope I can earn your trust and be worthy of it. For now, let’s get some more sleep and then tackle the day,” she crawled back into her tent and flopped down.  
Goliath nodded and they all clambered into the tent. He took the position at the flap to guard his trainer and new friends.  
Halle nestled down with her paws around Peekuu and next to Tank, feeling safe and able to get some real sleep at last.  
Things had to get better from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken so long. I flipflopped hard on what pokemon Bella as it would inform a lot about her personality. I think I've made some solid decisions now.
> 
> ( I may also have forgotten the geography of Kalos slightly. Happily the internet exists and I was able to get through it )


End file.
